Hey guys,Sorry to keep submitting so many forms, but I'm looking for a cheap computer to host my website (http://www.smashindex.com) from. My web host is bombarding my users with so many advertisements it's not funny. Anyone know of a cheap computer either online or off that I can put in the back of the closet and leave running 24/7 to host my site? I need at least 512 in RAM.

If you get a cheap computer, you will still need, server side software and sufficient bandwidth to handle the visitors to your site. If you think you can support a web site using your broadband ISP, you may be in for a surprise. Most ISPs provide blistering download speed but severely cripple the upload speed , specifically to discourage people like you from hosting a site through their servers.

I am the web master for an Association. I subscribe to a Web Hosting service that provides me unlimited data traffic both ways at a cost of $60 per year. They have provided me with 100% uptime and outstanding response time. What more could you want?

Most non-comercial ISPs won't let you host a web server of your own. Try a Google search on "web hosting services" and you should find a bunch of companies that will host your web site. I use IPower. It costs about $100 per year which includes the domain name. There is no advertising unless you put it on your web page. They have backup servers, backup power, etc. In the last 4 years I have never had an outage. Most of these services also include "stats" so you can see how many people access your site, what pages they look at, what time of day is most popular, etc.

Well, I don't actually plan to serve much, just two pages with links to everything. All the images are hosted on remote servers. Would I still not be able to host it? I mean how much demand will I get for two pages?

I agree with the others who say that your ISP may not allow web hosting.

But here's another factor: Energy cost.

Say you find a cheap desktop that can function as a server. Say it uses just 100 watts average, with the screen turned off, etc.

There are 8760 hours in a 365 day year, so the computer will use 876 kilowatt-hours of electricity to be on 24/7.

If you pay just 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, that's $87.60 added per year to your bill. Other posters have mentioned $60/year to $100/year web hosting, including the domain name, so why pay more to do it yourself?

btw, stuffing a 24/7 computer in an unventilated closet isn't the best idea because of the heat issue.

How much do you actually pay for a kilowatt-hour of electricity? Where I live, the rates are closing in on 20 cents, and they go up if you use more, and also in the summer. Check your rate schedule, and be sure to include transmission and distribution cost. You may be surprised.

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